www.phoebsphotography.com

What equipment to pack when travelling

Many people think travelling and photography go hand in hand. Unfortunately, with only two hands and often no one to help hold your bags your multi-tasking, multi-equipment holding abilities become quite limited. Here’s a few tips on the essentials to pack when doing casual photography whilst travelling…

1.Take a light camera

I know… I know…The urge to pack your deary DSLR is very tempting but more often than not there’s no real need for it. DSLR’s are very heavy and quite bulky. Not to mention the value of it makes it very painful if you break or lose it (don’t let those gypsies get the better of ya!).

2. Pack a tripod

Not necessarily one of those big ones with legs that allow you to stand it upright from the floor but just a mini one that you can use to lean against a wall (for a stable portrait shot against the wall in a cathedral with low light), on a bench or against the bridge overlooking the view you’re about to capture. There are many light, compact tripods which may come in handy when travelling.

3. Pack the camera bag!

Although annoying, always pack your camera bag. You never know when this will come in handy as a day bag and camera bags provide sufficient padding for your equipment when you’re not using it. Not to mention it separates your non-photography equipments from all the other stuff – makes it quicker to get out of the hotel room!

4. Bring an extra SD card

You don’t want to be that person that runs out of memory and has to stand there awkwardly deleting photos when you suddenly find out you’ve run out of space. Not fun not to mention annoying if someone is about to take a photo for you and they have no idea why no pictures are taking – don’t waste your energy, pack an extra SD card! This is also useful for a second reason… Memory card damage. If for any reason your SD card is damaged or the formatting is stuffed, that back up extra card will come in handy. These things are now very cheap to buy and can be readily found anywhere.

5. Pack your charger and a spare battery

No use bringing your camera without the charger. You’ll only go through so many days before it dies. A spare battery is quite useful when travelling as you can carry it on you and swap it with the dead battery and carry on with your day. Of course, the spare one needs to be charged up as well. I always ensure when I have time that both my spare and the one in my camera is charged up if I’ve got nothing else using up my international wall socket adaptor.

6. Pack a filter

These things are so useful. It prevents scratches on your lens if you do decide to pack a DSLR or a pricey camera.

7. Take a multi-focal length zoom lens

These allow for macro pictures, good depth of field as well as (limited) zoomed up pictures. I love to use my 18-55mm lens but pick whatever you’re most comfortable with which you are more likely to use.